There's plenty of adventure hidden beneath the gentle tidal cycles and crashing waves of Golarion. Discover the rich ecologies and complex societies hidden in the briny depths of the oceans and seas. In this book you can learn more about merfolk nations, the dangerous sahuagin, peaceful aquatic humanoids, and the aquatic terrors that wage war against them. Dare deadly environments, explore strange underwater cities, and find lost treasures within these pages.
This book also provides a wealth of rules for underwater combat and ways for terrestrial adventurers to adapt to aquatic environs, including new archetypes, feats, and magic items. Dive in to underwater adventure!
Inside this book you'll find:
A thorough gazetteer of Golarion's five oceans that explores the various points of interest and conflicts between those who make these bodies of water their home.
A look at Golarion's seas and their inhabitants, as well as strange treasures that can be found within their depths.
An expansion of rules for underwater combat that clarifies those presented in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and introduces new challenges to consider.
Dozens of new archetypes, class features, feats, spells, and items both magical and mundane that players can use to prepare their characters for adventures beneath the waves.
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Aquatic Adventures is intended for use with the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can be easily adapted to any fantasy world.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-944-8
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
It's fair to say that aquatic combat is complex and cumbersome to handle in Pathfinder: dealing with the shift to three-dimensions is hard to track on a grid, there are special rules for different types of weapons, the constant need for Swim checks to maneuver (or avoid sinking), tracking of how long a character can hold their breath, and much more. If it's a situation that only pops up on isolated occasions (diving to the bottom of a pool in a dungeon, for example), many GMs will just handwave it. But for campaigns set in or around rivers, lakes, and oceans, hand-waving the aquatic combat rules makes aquatic encounters less special, aquatic monsters less threatening, and character options designed for such a situation irrelevant.
Aquatic Adventures does a great job explaining and supplementing the rules for aquatic encounters as presented in the Core Rulebook. I'd consider it indispensable for adventures set in places like the River Kingdoms or for something like the Ruins of Azlant adventure path. Only about a third of the book is rules "crunch", with most of the chapters devoted to crunch-free (but extremely flavourful!) descriptions of the different oceans and seas of Golarion. I'll go through the chapters one by one, but first, we have to give praise to that amazing cover--that's the sort of thing that should be a poster. The art is reprinted on the inside back cover, while the inside front cover is a sort of "in-game" map showing the different oceans and seas in the game world (it's startling to remember just how small the Inner Sea region is compared to the rest of Golarion we rarely see). The overall layout and interior art of the book is very well done.
INTRODUCTION (2 pages)
This is a short, lyrical overview of oceans and their dangers. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's inessential.
ANTARKOS OCEAN (4 pages)
This is the great southern ocean of Golarion. The name is a bit too much on the nose, because the "Antarkos Ocean" has freezing waters, the danger of icebergs, fog, and so forth. The description is very well done, and makes the prospects of exploring the ocean and the ice sheet of the south pole the sort of thing to fill PCs with dread. There are some great bits of setting lore, like a mysterious race of dream-powered giants and a colony of kalo. In addition, there are tons of great adventure hooks to explain why the PCs would want to come here in the first place.
ARCADIAN OCEAN (4 pages)
The Arcadian Ocean separates the continent of Avistan (where most Pathfinder adventures are set) from the rarely-seen continent of Arcadia. The ocean here is filled with pirates, submerged ruins, and lost magics. This is where Ruins of Azlant takes place. Again, a lot of great adventure hooks to explain why PCs would try to cross such treacherous waters.
EMBARAL OCEAN (4 pages)
The Embaral Ocean is a "marine desert", which I didn't realise was a real thing. There's no aquatic life at all, nor is there any wind or currents to make journeys easier. It's an interesting idea in concept, though I'd have to see some adventures using it to really get a sense of whether it would work in practice.
OBARI OCEAN (4 pages)
The Obari Ocean borders Casmaron (and Vudra), and features occasional terrible storms. At this point, I notice that it's hard for the writers to make descriptions of different oceans sound interesting--"water be water", after all. There's something about an ice forest which sounds like a cool concept.
OKAIYO OCEAN (4 pages)
This is a pretty standard ocean, distinctive only by the presence of a mighty sahuagin empire.
GOLARION'S SEAS (18 pages)
This section includes two pages each on the following seas: the Castrovin, the Fever, the Inner, the Ivory, the Shining, the Sightless, the Songil, the Steaming, and the Valashmai. Each entry includes a brief summary, then longer passages on characteristics, denizens, treasures, and a notable geographical feature. It might sound bland, but there's a lot of exciting ideas here like the Razored Labyrinth of the Castrovin Sea (a maze of rocks sure to sink any ship that tries to pass through without a map) or the epic kaiju (and more) of the Valashmai Sea. Devotees of the Inner Sea will find a bit on different countries' navies.
AQUATIC RULES (22 pages)
As I mentioned in the opening, this section is indispensable. It contains clarifications and additions for things like buoyancy, fighting underwater, how various types of spells function, Perception and Survival checks, drowning, pressure and temperature, and more. If you want to do underwater combat well, this section will answer most of your questions. It contains some advice on "thinking in three dimensions", though I'd suggest this may be a trial-and-error thing for most groups. The section also includes several new archetypes and class options--most of them are really good at making underwater exploration and combat more feasible for PCs. For example, there's an "aquanaut" archetype for fighters, an "underwater" combat style for rangers, lots of good mundane equipment, the "aquadynamic focus" feat, and some great spells like free swim and lead anchor (potentially really nasty!). Melee characters will appreciate the underwater special weapon ability. There's a ton of new options here, and the vast majority are solid in terms of power versus cost.
And that's Aquatic Adventures. It's one of those books that's easy to overlook until some goober falls off a bridge, tips over a canoe, or decides to become a pirate--but when you need it, you really need it.
Worth the price for the Aquatic Rules chapter alone
First things first: this is Campaign Setting, so if you bought it to power up your PC and found out that many options are so narrow that they work best for NPCs ... well, you get what you deserve for not reading my review.
Second thing is that there are some very nice things for PCs here. I kind of wish that some of the stuff here was included in Blood of the Seas, but that ship has sailed. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You got the joke, right? Right?
Anyway, apart from rules material, this book has two things going for it. One are the chapters on Golarion's oceans and seas which, while evocative and well written, are somewhat brief. They're more primers than full descriptions, so as usual with Paizo, there's a lot for a GM to fill out with her or his imagination.
Now the big kahuna is the Aquatic Rules chapter which gathers, updates and expands the rules for aquatic movement and actions. Why is this such a great deal? Well it's because these rules are horribly spread across the core rulebook thanks to the CRB inheriting less-than-stellar layout of the 3.5 PHB. Here you have everything in one place - movement, buoyancy, combat, spellcasting, drowning AND the creme de la creme, some guidance as to how do spells work underwater. My snarky tongue-in-cheek argument about lightning bolts underwater suddenly holds far less water than it used to. AHAHAHAHAHAH! Also a joke! C'mon, you did get this one, too? Let me know in comments below.
The book does what it says on the tin, but nearly all of the new rules elements are unusable in all but the most heavily water focused games. An example of this is the Drowned Channeler Spiritualist, who has to be within 25 feet of a major body of water to gain /any/ benefit from Shared Consciousness. Not any water, not even a lake or major river - it has to be something on the scale of an ocean or sea.
If this was an exception and not the rule, I could give this three stars - but this book is sadly not so. Nearly every rules element has no effect outside of water, some actively penalize you for being on land; unless you regularly play entirely-aquatic games, skip this book and save yourself $16+
A good solid book about Golarion's oceans and seas and it also has some nice additional/expanded under water rules. While I do like some of the additional class options, spells, etc. I would have preferred less crunch for more world building.
I find this book very hard to rank in the usual one to five star way.
I enjoyed the first forty pages immensely. They give a really good survey of the oceans and seas of Golarion including plenty of adventure hooks, details of who lives where and everything you'd want from an introductory 'gazetteer' of such large areas.
My main complaint is that each section is too short and further that there's no discussion of the bodies of water to be found in the Darklands. Given the importance of underworld regions to a fantasy world, the latter in particular feels like a glaring omission.
The reason for that is no doubt the perceived need to include the mechanics in the latter part of the book. I suspect that these rules elements are well done and probably even necessary (I don't buy the campaign books for rules, so I haven't done more than flick through the later parts of the book) - nonetheless, I wish they'd been provided in some other way. It feels to me that this isn't really a campaign setting book, but rather two thirds of a campaign book plus some rules stuff.
Given all of that, I still consider this good value and it's a welcome entry in the line. I'd just personally prefer that the flavor proportion of these books be given greater weight.
I picked up this book just in time to get to the water parts of Hell's Rebels. The brutal pugilist in the game is delighted that making things prone now has an effect underwater. :-)
Also, the bit about squeezing damage from constricting doing full damage underwater regardless of the type matches the house ruling I already made up, so thanks for that!
Yeah, our brawler in Skull and Shackles, Ti, is happy about the underwater trip too; a lot of these were things that came up in my own aquatic games. Ti will caution your brutal pugilist that it is still very difficult to disorient a naturally aquatic creature with a high Swim bonus, though, so use those new powers wisely!
Tripping swimming things? That seems relevant to one of my PC's interests.
What does it do, roughly? And is it presented as an optional rule (like Unchained), or is it something that might be usable in PFS?
It is technically something that has been in the rules at least twice, very briefly (mentioned in passing in the CRB and then an archetype in ARG for one of the undersea races brings it up again). Aquatic Adventures makes it more explicit.
I picked up this book just in time to get to the water parts of Hell's Rebels. The brutal pugilist in the game is delighted that making things prone now has an effect underwater. :-)
Also, the bit about squeezing damage from constricting doing full damage underwater regardless of the type matches the house ruling I already made up, so thanks for that!
Yeah, our brawler in Skull and Shackles, Ti, is happy about the underwater trip too; a lot of these were things that came up in my own aquatic games. Ti will caution your brutal pugilist that it is still very difficult to disorient a naturally aquatic creature with a high Swim bonus, though, so use those new powers wisely!
Oh, he knows. :-) Still won't stop him from trying, though.
I just wanted to confirm something I wasn't clear on.
Aquatic Adventure's page 63 wrote:
TRAVELER’S WET SUIT
PRICE +2,750 SLOT body CL 3rd WEIGHT 4 lbs.
Aura faint divination
This wet suit protects against environmental cold damage and hypothermia. Anything stored in its waterproof pockets is kept magically separate from any surrounding water, even if the wearer opens the pocket underwater. Finally, the wearer gains a +2 competence bonus on Swim checks.
Was this supposed to be an armor special property? It states it takes up the body slot, but the price also indicates that it can be added to something else. The Body Slot is not the Armor Slot, and instead covers Robes and Vestments. Could this then be added to something like a Druid's Vestments?
Or was this supposed to be added to the basic Wet Suite, (and if that's the case, why not just make the price 2,758, adding the cost of the Wet Suite on automatically)?
But really, should probably be 1 lb. like other figurines. That might be the weight of the full size hippocampus in there, though I remember them weighing more in the normal gear section.
There also appears the be a problem with the weights of the two metamagic rods (murky and steam). The first has no weight given and the second has a weight of 1. All other (as far as I can tell) metamagic rods in the game have a weight of 5.
Only if it's ripped!!! The max load for one is 690 lbs. A horse weighs between 1000 and 1500, so, assuming loss of weight for buoyancy, I'd still estimate around 750 minimum...
But thanks. I will tell the DM an official WotC -type says it should be 1 lb!
Also, I just realized that I never added the second sentence to my post above about it being an error. The figurine weighs 1 lb.
Would you mind taking a look at this. I had some questions about it that I'm not too sure about.
DM Beckett wrote:
Aquatic Adventure's page 63 wrote:
TRAVELER’S WET SUIT
PRICE +2,750 SLOT body CL 3rd WEIGHT 4 lbs.
Aura faint divination
This wet suit protects against environmental cold damage and hypothermia. Anything stored in its waterproof pockets is kept magically separate from any surrounding water, even if the wearer opens the pocket underwater. Finally, the wearer gains a +2 competence bonus on Swim checks.
Was this supposed to be an armor special property? It states it takes up the body slot, but the price also indicates that it can be added to something else. The Body Slot is not the Armor Slot, and instead covers Robes and Vestments. Could this then be added to something like a Druid's Vestments?
Or was this supposed to be added to the basic Wet Suite, (and if that's the case, why not just make the price 2,758, adding the cost of the Wet Suite on automatically)?
Should this be a Faint Abjuration Aura?
It seems like a pretty nifty item, but as written is kind of unusable. Is it indeed meant to be added to a body slot item, or an Armor special property? Or both/either? Or is that the actual price of the item, and the "+" was a misprint, which means you can not then have another Body Slot Item with this.
The + is a misprint, it's an item in the body slot.
Thank you. It could have been a misprint in multiple ways, but part of me was really hoping it could be added onto another body slot item. Could be an interesting possibility for future items to consider.
Am I reading shark style correctly?
1d6 bleed on every hit seems really overpowered. By contrast bleeding critical does 2d6, but only functions on a crit. Also, shark style is accessible at 3rd level, while bleeding critical is only accessible at 11th.
1d6 bleed not overpowered IMO. Bleed does not stack, which means the average bleed damage will be 3 pts. per round. 2d6 bleed is more serious, averaging at 7 pts. per round. The [insert word] critical feats' downside of 'working only on a crit' are not really a downside if you build the PC for high crit range and have other critical feats working together via Critical Mastery... with that said, Bleeding Critical is shyte, yes.
So, how does this book work with Blood of the Sea? They both seem to cover similar ground ... almost feels like they could have / should have been one single book?
I just picked this up recently and the Wave Form spell is missing an SR entry. It is a transmutation so I would assume SR applies but it would be useful to be sure.
I wonder why all thrown weapons are deemed ineffective, when thrown at a submerged target. As far as I know there are/have been plenty of indigenous people, who catch fish with spears and harpoons.
I wonder why all thrown weapons are deemed ineffective, when thrown at a submerged target. As far as I know there are/have been plenty of indigenous people, who catch fish with spears and harpoons.
I'll admit I'm not an expert, but isn't spearfishing usually done by just stabbing the fish in question with a thrust, rather than throwing it, whether done underwater or from above the water?
Well, they also throw spears, it definately would justify a spear or harpoon to be effective within the very first square (within the first 5 foot) below surface.
Apologies if this has already been discussed (335 comments, I don't have time to read it all). The image of Munavri on page 35. I feel like she looks like an actress, possibly from the MCU. Can anyone help me identify her? Or am I just crazy?
Regarding the Aquachymest archetype, do all of his above water bombs land in the square adjacent to him, thus putting him in constant danger of splash damage, or does the 5' range put it ten feet out?
If I had to GM myself on this one, I would say the bombs land in the adjacent square, putting the aquachymest in constant danger of splash damage above water. Investing in ways to extend range seems to be the best course of action.
